US consul bids farewell to Scotland [nice conciliatory story]
La N
US consul bids fond farewell to Scotland
Official says America sees country as a partner
By Ewan Fergus
IF THERE WERE TIMES WHEN AMERICA'S CONSUL in Edinburgh despaired of selling
the Bush administration to sceptical Scots she won't admit it. In diplomacy,
however, what is unsaid is often as important as words spoken.
And as Lisa Vickers, principal officer at the US consulate in Edinburgh,
prepares to leave her post for a spell of academia in New England, she
tactfully side-steps the Bush question, opting to focus on the "different
way" the Obama administration is doing business abroad.
"President Obama has made it pretty clear that we really want to engage with
countries on a variety of different issues in a slightly different way," she
says in her cultured San Franciscan drawl.
"I just received my traditional Fourth of July message from President Obama,
the gist of it was we are a country that doesn't give up, we try hard and we
never sit back and rest on our laurels otherwise we'd never have become
anything other than 13 colonies. We're not going to stop now when we're
facing a war on two fronts and a recession.
"We'll continue to engage and work very closely with the world in order for
all of us to pull out of this and be better than what we were."
There's no mistaking the conciliatory tone, often conspicuous by its absence
during the Bush years.
Vickers bristles when asked if her job was made easier when Obama swept to
victory and made America cool again. "I don't think we ever stopped being
cool," she says. "But I think that there's a renewed interest in the US and
there's a lot of interest in Obama and what he's doing and his policies. I
think it's very exciting right now and it's an exciting time to be an
American diplomat.
"I've served under four administrations. President Obama has a different
perspective and a different style, but many of the policies that the
previous administration had in place, he hasn't come in and thrown those out
wholesale. He has changed government policy on stem cell research, and has
made science and technology cool again. We are all eagerly awaiting what
will happen in Copenhagen in December at the UN climate change conference."
It is a measure of how much has changed in America that their officials
bring up issues such as climate change. Vickers, a 45-year-old career
diplomat of almost 20 years' experience, leaves Edinburgh to become a fellow
at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She
departs, she says, with a heavy heart and is clearly enamoured with
Scotland, a nation where the US has had a permanent diplomatic presence
since 1798.
Is that affection for Scotland still shared by her fellow Americans? You
bet. "Edinburgh is a wonderful city and Scotland is truly a bonnie country.
I'm finding it very hard to leave.
"I think Americans are as fond of Scotland as they have ever been.
Connections between Scotland and the US are profound and long-standing.
"There's a real affection for Scotland, not only for brand-Scotland, the
tartan, whisky and shortbread, but also what Scotland is today - a
world-leader in renewable energies, in biotechnologies, and I think the US
increasingly is looking at Scotland as a partner. Scotland has some specific
research and selling points on renewables, biotechnologies and bio-medical
industries that are very attractive to US investors."
And is she confident that America can once again foster a reciprocal
affection around the globe?
"We live in a world that relies very heavily on partnership and teamwork,"
she declares. "I think it's also a matter of working with partners and other
countries which have shared interests and shared values to resolve problems
that affect us all. The recession, for example, isn't a US-UK recession.
It's worldwide.
"We all need to work together. I think we will because we all have the same
interests at heart. We all want jobs and homes and our families to be happy
and healthy and for our children to be well educated. That's a worldwide
aspiration."
This diplomat might be leaving, but it seems the fresh air will continue to
blow through the corridors of the US consulate in Regent Terrace.